I don't think your definition of Steam's DRM is the widely accepted one, otherwise many developers (particularly projects funded via Kickstarter) would not be planning to offer GOG.com, Humble Bundle or Desura versions. Steam still requires you install their proprietary client software first in order to then buy and install the game, as opposed to browser solutions which do not require installing third-party software. every time you want to install the game or buy a new one. I think you'll find most people would say the Steam client itself is DRM, CEG is just another layer.

D:

I'm not talking principles here as I find that to be an utterly pointless discussion - I'm just making a distinction relative to the rest of the discussion here. If Bethesda didn't care about DRM, they would not care about CEG.

I'm also talking about technicalities - if you don't opt to include CEG in your game, Steamworks integration is actually a rather poor excuse not to sell your game outside of Steam, as long as it's not a multiplayer title.

And yet another reason for me to make GOG my only digital distribution site of preference, ignoring Steam, DRM, gaming news, trends, consoles, EA, Activision Blizzard and everything that makes a gamer "contemporary". If the price is being called a hipster, I chose to be a hipster for the rest of my life. Everything I need is my cave and my 10 year old PC. Gamers of the world, unite!

At least we have its forefather, Wasteland.

The worlds get smaller as well though

The decision to drop GFWL isn't any evidence of not being pro-DRM, since Microsoft is shutting down GFWL in 2014 anyway, so any company that still plans to sell those games in the future have no choice but to drop GFWL.

They could have just released a patch that removes the requirement, but IMO the ignorant suits at Zenimax want to monitor and control anyone who would dare to run/play their precious intellectual properties.

My heart sunk there for a minute, I thought the thread read FlatOut gone, phew.

;D

Well... As for the size of the world, it's technically Arena > Daggerfall > Oblivion > Skyrim > Morrowind

Of course, it depends on how do you want to rate the size. As all travel in Arena and Daggerfall was done via fast travel or vast, randomly-generated spaces, it would suddenly be:
Oblivion > Skyrim > Morrowind > Arena > Daggerfall
as the vast majority of terrain in Arena and Daggerfall was generated and completely non-consequencial.

It gets even more complicated than that tho; Morrowind has the slowest walking speed, Skyrim the fastest IIRC. So when it comes to walking times... Yeah, it's kind of difficult to be objective about this :D

Still, when it comes to quality over quantity, Morrowind and Skyrim are the best by far. Morrowind for imaginative world and Skyrim for the sheer amount of detail put into it. It would be extremely difficult to argue that Skyrim was not absolutely amazing in its world design.

One thing I am disspointed in Skyrim is that they don't have a big capital city. Vivec and the Imperial City felt HUGE. Skyrim's Capital City feels lesser compared to both former games.

Yeah, size of Skyrim cities felt quite disappointing to me as well. To be honest, amazing cities was mostly Oblivion's domain - it did them extremely well.

yup looking at the city tower from the far mountains still feels awesome, but looking at the cloud covered mountains in skyrim feels awesome too, also looking at whiterun from far, while you are running towards its feels a bit epic

And that makes them better how? This is like arguing he is not a liar, he is just a thief!! Anyhow,a company that has all its games on Steam only, is a company I am not interested in their games. For me digital copies are only acceptable if DRM free (I am still hurt from DA:O). Physical copies as long as they don't need stupid client to install, I don't care as I just crack them anyhow :)

Smaller devs opt to go other places besides Steam because of greenlight. It takes time to get through it for most games and if you want to get around it you need to work with a publisher like Big Finish has done in order to get Tesla Effect there with out the need for Greenlight process.

Region pricing actually benefits the customer. Shocking, right? Go ask someone who's not fortunate enough to be from US, Europe or Australia. Yes, EU and Australia gets screwed by the abuse of regional pricing (some parts of europe, arguably), but for people from other regions with weaker economy, prices actually get lower so they can afford this kind of entertainment.